Gallery Ireland's Shane Lowry shakes hands with his caddie on the 18th green after completing his first round
Ireland's Shane Lowry shakes hands with his caddie on the 18th green after completing his first round
Shane Lowry matched his best Masters start with a super 68 but insisted he must reset completely if he’s to become the first Irishman to win a green jacket.
The Offaly man made five birdies and a bogey to sit inside the top 10, just three shots behind early leaders Viktor Hovland and Jon Rahm, who fired seven-under 65s to lead by two strokes from Cameron Young.
“I think it was important to shoot a good score today,” Lowry said. “I was trying not to put too much pressure on myself to do so, but I knew going into today how important today's round is because who knows what the next three days are going to hold.”
With one good score in the bank, he’s got an ace up his sleeve in the event of bad weather and plans to approach today as if his 68 never happened.
“I think I'm comfortable in my own skin and the way I'm playing and that you just have to keep going, just keep one foot in front of the other and keep going forward,” he said.
“There's nothing that happened behind you that you can change. So whether I shot 68 or 78 today I still have to go and shoot a good score tomorrow.
“It's one of those where I put that round behind me and put everything behind me and just move on and hopefully I can do it again tomorrow.”